Storage network management system and method

ABSTRACT

In a computer system having a storage device switches and hosts respectively connected by a network, in accordance with an ID of a logical volume of the storage device and an IP address of a host, access control configuration of the logical volume is performed relative to the storage device, the IP address of the host is converted into a MAC address, the MAC address of the host is converted into a port ID of the switch connected to the host, and addition of the port to virtual local area network (VLAN) is performed for the switch. Logical unit number (LUN) masking and VLAN configuration essential for security countermeasure of IP-SAN (Internet protocol-storage area network) can be managed collectively by a system administrator so that the running cost of IP-SAN can be lowered.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system constituted of a storage device connected to a network and a plurality of information processing apparatuses.

2. Description of the Related Art

Attention has been paid recently to network storage technology, IP-SAN (Internet Protocol-Storage Area Network), which uses an IP network whose initial cost is cheaper than that a network using Fibre Channel (hereinafter abbreviated to “FC”). The IP network requires, however, an additional cost for maintaining security because many security threatening crack tools are circulated.

As the security countermeasure for a conventional FC-SAN, LUN (Logical Unit Number) masking has been used. The LUN masking is the technique according to which access from a computer to a logical unit (Logical Unit, hereinafter abbreviated to LU) of a storage device is restricted by the storage device to prevent illegal data reference, alteration and erase.

If the LUN masking technique of FC-SAN is to be realized in IP-SAN, a computer accessible to each LUN of a storage device is designated by an IP address assigned to the computer. It is, however, easy to tap a packet sent/received to/from another computer connected to the same subnet in the IP network. Therefore, if the same network is shared by two or more departments or businesses, data security is impossible to be ensured, and the configuration of only the LUN masking is insufficient for the security countermeasure. It is therefore necessary to use other security techniques together with the LUN masking.

A candidate for the security technique to be used with the LUN masking may be data cryptograph utilizing IPSec techniques or the like. However, a cryptography process has a large load on a CPU. If this process is applied to IP-SAN, the I/O performance of a storage device is degraded. In order to suppress such performance degradation, although the cryptography process may be executed by using dedicated hardware, this approach is unsatisfactory for the security technique to be used together with the LUN masking because it requires a high initial cost.

Another candidate for the security technique may be VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) techniques according to which one physical network is divided into a plurality of logical networks. With the VLAN techniques, one or more computers such as those used by the same department posing no problem of data tapping are classified into one group. Each group is assigned a logical network to prevent data tapping by other groups. VLAN has been adopted by most of LAN switches so that there is no additional initial cost. It can therefore be expected that a combination of LUN masking and VLAN technologies will be used as the security countermeasure of IP-SAN.

Techniques of reducing the load of configuring VLAN are disclosed in JP-A-2001-53776.

The configuration work of LUN masking and VLAN is required to be performed not only on the side of a storage device but also on the side of switches in IP-SAN. Since the configuration work is required on the sides of different devices, a system user or administrator has a large work load.

In the configuration work of LUN masking, a computer is designated by an IP address (or domain name), whereas in the configuration work of VLAN, it is necessary to designate a computer by a port ID for identifying a port of a connection destination switch. Since the configuration works of LUN masking and VLAN designate a computer by using different IDs, a configuration miss is likely to occur.

The techniques disclosed in the above-cited JP-A-2001-53776 automatically perform the configuration work of VLAN when a switch to which a computer is connected is changed, and do not solve the above-described problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of this invention is to provide a system capable of facilitating the configuration of VLAN and LUN masking.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a management method for a storage system having a storage device, a switch and a computer respectively connected by a network, comprises a step of, in accordance with an identifier of a storage area of the storage device and a first address of the computer, performing a configuration of an access control to the storage area of the storage device, converting the first address of the computer into a second address, converting the second address of the computer into an identifier of a port of the switch connected to the computer, and adding the identifier of the port to a virtual LAN for the switch.

According to the embodiment, as a system administrator configures LUN masking and enters a subnet address of VLAN to which the computer and storage device belong and when the computer or storage device is connected to the network, a storage management device automatically configures VLAN.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration according to a first embodiment.

FIGS. 2A to 2C are tables showing data structures.

FIGS. 3A to 3C are tables showing data structures.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are examples of a window for registering a group.

FIG. 5 is an example of a window for configuring LUN masking and registering a switch.

FIGS. 6A to 6C illustrate a communication sequence of the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of an address table updating process.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of a VLAN adding process.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of a VLAN deleting process.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a communication sequence of the second embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, similar devices are represented by identical reference numerals.

First, description will be made on a computer system according to a first embodiment of the invention. In the first embodiment, IP-SAN security is managed by a storage management device which manages the configuration of a storage device and monitors the storage device.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the system configuration of the first embodiment. A computer system has a storage management device 1, a storage device 2, switches 3 for switching packets, and hosts 4, respectively interconnected by communication lines 20 a.

The storage device 2 is constituted of a single storage device or a plurality of storage devices constituting a storage system. The storage device may be a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk and a DVD. The storage system may adopt a RAID configuration. The storage device 2 has physical ports 41 for connection to the switch 3 or host 4 via the communication line 20 a.

The host 4 is a general computer having an arithmetic unit, a memory, an input/output unit and the like. The host 4 has a physical port for connection to another device via the communication line 20 a.

The switch 3 transfers data sent by the host 4 or storage device 2 to another device. The switch 3 has physical ports 42 for connection to the storage device 2 and physical ports 43 for connection to the host 4 or another switch 3. Although the physical ports 42 and 43 are not required to be physically discriminated, they are discriminated herein for the purpose of description simplicities.

It is assumed that the storage management device 1, storage device 2 and switches 3 are interconnected by communication lines 20 b on which monitor and maintenance data flow. Instead of using the communication lines 20 b, the monitor and maintenance data may be transferred via the communication lines 20 a. In this embodiment, although the embodiment has two switches 3 and four hosts 4, the numbers of switches and hosts are arbitrary.

The storage device 2 can become an iSCSI target. The storage device 2 has a controller which receives configuration information of LUN masking from an external to perform the configuration of LUN masking.

The switch 3 has a controller which receives configuration information of VLAN from an external to perform the configuration of VLAN. The controller of the switch 3 sends a forwarding database in response to a request from an external and notifies link-down to an external.

The storage management device 1 is a general computer. The storage management device 1 has: a central processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated to “CPU”) 24, a secondary storage device 23 (hereinafter abbreviated to “magnetic disk”) such as a hard disk; a main storage memory (hereinafter abbreviated to “main memory”) 21, communication lines 22 such as buses and crossbar switches; an output device 25 (hereinafter called “display”) such as a display device, a character input device 27 such as a keyboard; and a pointing device 26 such as a mouse. The storage management device 1 has also interfaces for connection to the communication lines 20 a and 20 b.

The main memory 21 stores various programs to be executed by CPU 24. More specifically, the programs include: a GUI control program 10 to be executed by CPU 24 when a graphical user interface is supplied to a system administrator; a discovery request receiving program 11 to be executed when registration is received from an iSCSI target and when a discovery request of an iSCSI target from an iSCSI initiator (host) is received and responded; an ARP transmitting program 12 to be executed when the storage management device 1 performs translation between an IP address and a MAC address by using ARP (Address Resolution Protocol, RFC826); a port ID retrieving program 13 to be executed when a forwarding database is retrieved from the switch 3 and the MAC address is converted into a port ID which is an ID of a physical port; a LUN masking configuring program 14 to be executed when the LUN masking is configured for the storage device 2; and a VLAN configuring program 15 to be executed when the VLAN configuration is performed for the switch 3.

The forwarding database is a correspondence table showing the relation between a port ID of a physical port 42 (or 43) of the switch 3 and a MAC address of a device connected to the physical port. An IP address is an identifier assigned to each device when the Internet protocol is incorporated as the protocol for the communication lines 20. A MAC address is a specific identifier assigned to each device.

The iSCSI initiator is a device autonomously issuing an iSCSI command and corresponds to the host 4 in this embodiment. An iSCSI target is a device which is a communication partner of the iSCSI initiator, and corresponds to the storage device 2, LU therein or the like in this embodiment.

The above-described programs are stored in the magnetic disk 23 in advance, by reading them from a portable recording medium or by downloading them from another computer via the network. These programs are loaded in the main memory 21 when it becomes necessary, and executed by CPU 24. These programs may be implemented as dedicated hardware.

The magnetic disk 23 stores the following tables. An address table 30 stores the correspondence among an IP address and a MAC address corresponding to the physical port of the host 4 or storage device 2, and a port ID of a physical port of the switch connected to the physical port of the host 4 or storage device 2. A group table 31 stores an ID of a group constituted of an iSCSI initiator and an iSCSI target (these are collectively called “iSCSI node”) and a subnet address of VLAN to which the group belongs. A group membership table 32 stores an IP address of the iSCSI initiator constituting the group and an iSCSI name of the iSCSI target. A LUN masking table 33 stores an IP address of an iSCSI initiator accessible to the iSCSI target and each LU thereof. An iSCSI name table 34 stores a correspondence between the name of an iSCSI target and an IP address. A switch table 35 stores an IP address of a management physical port of each switch.

Each group is constituted of one or more iSCSI initiators such as a host 4 used by the same department or business which poses no problem of data tapping, and an iSCSI target used by the iSCSI initiators.

Brief description will first be made on the operation of the storage management device 1 of the first embodiment. First, a system administrator registers switches 3 installed in the computer system in the switch table 35. Next, the system administrator registers groups in the group table 31. Thereafter, when the storage device 2 is connected to the switch, the storage management device 1 judges the group to which the connected storage device 2 belongs, adds the storage device 2 to the group as a member, and instructs the switch 3 to add the storage device 2 to VLAN corresponding to the group.

Next, as the system administrator performs the configuration of LUN masking, the storage management device 1 instructs the storage device 2 to perform the configuration of LUN masking, judges the group of the host 4 designated by LUN masking, and adds the host to the group as a member. As the host 4 is connected to the switch 3 thereafter, the storage management device 1 instructs the switch 3 to add the host 4 to VLAN of the group to which the host 4 belongs.

Next, description will be made on the data structure of each table stored in the magnetic disk 23 of the storage management device 1.

Each of the address table 30, group table 31, group membership table 32, LUN masking table 33, iSCSI name table 34 and switch table 35 has the array structure capable of registering one or more records.

FIG. 2A is a table showing an example of the data structure of the address table 30. The address table 30 has one record per each physical port of the host 4 and storage device 2. Each record has the following entries. An entry 300 registers an IP address assigned to the physical port corresponding to the record. An entry 301 registers a MAC address assigned to the physical port corresponding to the record. An entry 302 resisters a switch ID which is an identifier of the switch 3 connected to the physical port corresponding to the record. An entry 303 resisters a port ID of the physical port of the switch connected to the physical port corresponding to the record.

FIG. 2B is a table showing an example of the data structure of the croup table 31. The group table 31 has one record per each group. Each record of the group table 31 has the following entries. An entry 310 registers a group ID which is an identifier of the group corresponding to the record. An entry 311 registers a subnet address of VLAN to which the iSCSI initiator and iSCSI target constituting the group corresponding to the record belong. In this embodiment, since the group ID is also used as VLAN ID, it is assumed that the group ID takes an integer value from 1 to 4096.

FIG. 2C is a table showing an example of the data structure of the group membership table 32. The group membership table 32 has one record per each iSCSI node. Each record has the following entries. An entry 320 resisters a group ID of a group belongs to which is the iSCSI node corresponding to the record. An entry 321 registers an IP address of the iSCSI node corresponding to the record. An entry 322 registers discrimination information indicating whether the iSCSI node corresponding to the record is an iSCSI initiator or an iSCSI target. An entry 323 registers information of a connection flag indicating whether or not the iSCSI node corresponding to the record is connected to the communication line 20 a.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the information registered in the entry 322 is either “initiator” or “target”. It is also assumed that the information registered in the entry 323 is “1” if the iSCSI node corresponding to the record is connected to the communication line 20 a, and “0” if not.

FIG. 3A is a table showing an example of the data structure of the LUN masking table 33. The LUN masking table 33 has one record per each iSCSI name given to the iSCSI target. Each record has the following entries. An entry 330 registers an iSCSI name corresponding to the record. An entry 331 registers LUN of LU contained in the iSCSI target designated by the iSCSI name corresponding to the record. A entry 332 registers an IP address of an iSCSI initiator accessible to LU registered in the entry 331.

FIG. 3B is a table showing an example of the data structure of the iSCSI name table 34. The iSCSI name table 34 has one record per each iSCSI name given to the iSCSI target. Each record has the following entries. An entry 340 registers an iSCSI name corresponding to the record. An entry 341 registers an IP address of the iSCSI target designated by the iSCSI name corresponding to the record. An entry 342 resisters a port number of the iSCSI target designated by the iSCSI name corresponding to the record.

FIG. 3C is a table showing an example of the data structure of the switch table 35. The switch table 35 has one record per each switch 4 in the system. Each record has the following entries. An entry 350 registers a switch ID for identifying the switch 3 corresponding to the record. An entry 351 registers a management IP address assigned to a management physical port of the switch corresponding to the record.

Graphical user interfaces (hereinafter abbreviated to “GUI”) used by the embodiment will be described. These GUIs are displayed on the display 25 when the storage management device 1 executes the GUI control program 10. A system administrator or the like sets each parameter on the displayed GUI by using the character input device 27 or pointing device 26.

The display 25, character input device 27 and pointing device 26 may be other devices different from those of the storage management device 1. For example, a console terminal connected to the storage management device 1 via the communication line 20 b or serial cable may have the display 25 and the like. In this case, the storage management device 1 executes the GUI control program 10, and sends screen data to the console terminal which in turn displays GUI on the display 25.

The console terminal sends each parameter set by a system administrator or the like via the character input device 27 or pointing device 26 to the storage management device 1. The storage management device 1 may be provided with a command line interface having the equivalent function to that of GUI, instead of using GUI of this embodiment.

FIG. 4A is a diagram showing an example of an LUN masking configuration window 400 to be used for the configuration of LUN masking by a system administrator. The LUN masking configuration window 400 has: a button 401 for selecting an iSCSI name of an iSCSI target; an area 402 for displaying the iSCSI name selected by the button 401; a button 403 for selecting an LUN in the iSCSI target; an area 404 for displaying the LUN selected by the button 403; an area 405 for entering an IP address of an iSCSI initiator; a button 406 for registering information designated in these areas and by these buttons; and a button 407 for cancelling the registration.

Description will be given on the operation of the storage management device 1 to be performed when LUN masking is configured by a GUI operation. The following operation is performed by execution of the GUI operation program 10.

When a system administrator or the like depresses the button 406 by using the pointing device or the like, the storage management device 1 adds a new record to the LUN masking table 33 in accordance with the contents displayed in the areas 402, 404 and 405.

Next, the storage management device 1 checks, for each record in the group table 31, whether the IP address entered in the area 405 belongs to the subnet address registered in the entry 311. If it belongs to the subnet, a record is added to the group membership table 32. In this case, the group ID in the entry 310 of the record in the group table 31 is registered in the entry 320 of the record to be added, the contents in the area 405 are registered in the entry 321, “initiator” is registered in the entry 322, and “0” is registered in the entry 323.

If the IP address entered in the area 405 belongs to the subnet of some record in the group table 31, the storage management device 1 further checks whether the iSCSI target having the iSCSI name entered in the area 402 is registered in the group membership table 32. If not registered, a record is added to the group membership table 32. In this case, the group ID of the entry 310 of the record in the group table 31 is registered in the entry 320 of the record to be added, the contents in the area 401 are registered in the entry 321, “target” is registered in the entry 322, and “0” is registered in the entry 323.

Lastly, the storage management device 1 executes the LUN masking configuring program 14, and instructs the storage device 2 to configure LUN masking. Specifically, the storage management device 1 sends the information registered in the LUN masking table 33 to the storage device 2 so that the LUN masking is configured in accordance with the sent information. More specifically, the storage management device 1 sends an instruction to the controller of the storage device 2 so that an access is permitted from the host 4 designated by the designated IP address to the target having the designated iSCSI name.

FIG. 4B is a diagram showing an example of a group registration window 420 to be used for the registration of a group by a system administrator. The group registration window 420 has: an area 421 for entering a new group ID by a system administrator; an area 422 for entering a subnet address of VLAN to which the iSCSI nodes constituting the group belong; a button 423 for registering the information designated in these areas; and a button 424 for cancelling the registration.

Next, description will be made on the operation of the storage management device 1 to be performed when a group is registered by a GUI Operation. The operation is also performed by execution of the GUI control program 10.

When a system administrator or the like depresses the button 423 of the group registration window 420 by using the pointing device or the like, the storage management device 1 adds a new record to the group table 31. The contents in the area 421 are registered in the entry 310 of the record to be added, and the contents in the area 422 are registered in the entry 311.

Next, the storage management device 1 selects a record having the IP address belonging to the subnet in the area 422 from the LUN masking table 33. In accordance with the information in the selected record, the storage management device 1 adds a record of the iSCSI initiator and a record of the iSCSI target to the group membership table 32. The contents in the area 421 are registered in the entry 320 of the record of the iSCSI initiator to be added, the IP address registered in the entry 332 is registered in the entry 321, “initiator” is registered in the entry 322, and “0” is registered in the entry 323. The contents in the area 421 are registered in the entry 320 of the record of the iSCSI target to be added, the iSCSI name in the entry 330 is registered in the entry 321, “target” is registered in the entry 322, and “0” is registered in the entry 323.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a switch registration window 440 to be used for the registration of a management port of each switch in the computer system by a system administrator or the like. The switch registration window 440 has: an area 441 for entering a switch ID; an area 442 for entering an IP address of a management port of the switch; a button 443 for registering the information designated in these areas; and a button 444 for cancelling the registration.

Next, description will be given on the operation of the storage management device 1 to be performed when a switch is registered by a GUI Operation by a system administrator.

When a system administrator or the like depresses the button 443 by using the pointing device or the like, the storage management device 1 adds a new record to the switch table 35 in accordance with the parameters designated by the buttons.

Next, a communication sequence among these devices of the embodiment will be described. The communication lines 20 a for interconnecting the storage management device 1 and switch 3 a are assumed to be configured so that the communication lines belong to a default VLAN having the VLAN ID of “0”. It is also assumed that VLAN trunks are configured to be connected to the physical ports of the switch 3 a connected to another switch 3 b.

FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating a communication sequence to be performed when a physical port of the storage device 2 is connected to the switch 3 wherein the physical port 41 of the storage device 2 is connected to the physical port 42 of the switch 3 a.

First, when the storage device 2 detects a link establishment, it registers an iSCSI target to a discovery service. The discovery service is a service of retrieving a list of iSCSI targets usable by an iSCSI initiator. IETF proposes that this service is implemented by using SLP (Service Location Protocol, RFC2608) or iSNS (Internet Simple Name Service).

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the storage management device 1 functions as a directory agent of SLP. The invention is also applicable to iSNS. If SLP is used, an iSCSI target is registered by sending a service advertisement packet. This service advertisement packet contains an iSCSI name, an IP address, a port number and the like, respectively of the iSCSI target. At this stage, the communication line 20 a interconnecting the physical ports 41 and 42 belongs to the default VLAN (VLAN ID=“0”) (S601).

Upon reception of the service advertisement from the iSCSI target, the storage management device 1 adds a record to the iSCSI name table 34 in accordance with the contents of the service advertisement, and executes an address table updating process (from S602 to S605).

The details of the address table updating process will be given. First, the storage management device 1 broadcasts an ARP request via the communication lines 20 a. At this time, since the communication line 20 a interconnecting the storage management device 1 and switch 3 a and the communication line 20 a interconnecting the physical ports 41 and 42 belong to the same VLAN, the broadcast packet reaches the physical port 41 (S602).

Upon reception of the broadcast packet, the storage device 2 sends an ARP response including a MAC address of the physical port 41 to the storage management device 1. The storage management device 1 can therefore acquire the MAC address corresponding to the IP address of the iSCSI target (S603).

Next, the storage management device 1 acquires the forwarding database via the switch 3 a and communication line 20 b to obtain the port ID (port ID of the physical port 42) corresponding to the MAC address.

Thereafter, the storage management device 1 stores the correspondence relation between the IP address and MAC address of the physical port 41 and the port ID of the physical port 42 connected to the physical port 41, respectively acquired in the manner described above, in the address table 30 (S604, S605).

Lastly, the storage management device 1 executes a VLAN adding process. In this VLAN adding process, the storage management device 1 searches the group membership table 32 by using as a search key the iSCSI name of the iSCSI target contained in the service advertisement packet received at Step S601, to thereby acquire the group ID of the group to which the iSCSI target belongs. The storage management device 1 instructs via the communication lines 20 b the switch 3 a to configure VLAN in such a manner that the physical port 42 belongs to VLAN having the group ID as its VLAN ID (S606, S607).

FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating a communication sequence to be performed when the host 4 is connected to the switch 3 wherein a host 4 a is connected to the switch 3 a.

In this communication sequence, first the host 4 a sends a service request to the storage management device 1 to acquire a usable iSCSI target (S611) and lastly the storage management device 1 sends the usable iSCSI target to the host 4 a via the communication line 20 a (S618). The other communication sequence is similar to that shown in FIG. 6A. In the communication sequence to be performed when the host 4 c or 4 d is connected to the switch 3 b, the switch 3 b is inserted between the host 4 and switch 3 a, and the other communication sequence is similar to that shown in FIG. 6A.

FIG. 6C is a diagram illustrating a communication sequence to be performed when the physical port of the storage device 2 or host 4 is disconnected from the switch wherein a host 4 a is disconnected from the switch 3 a.

The switch 3 a detected disconnection of a link to the host 4 a sends a link-down notice to the storage management device 1 via the communication line 20 b by using a means such as SNMPTrap. It is assumed that the link-down notice contains the port ID of the physical port which was linked down (S621).

Upon reception of the link-down notice, the storage management device 1 derives information of the source IP address (IP address of the sender switch) and the port ID from the link-down notice. The storage device unit 1 searches the switch table 35 by using the source IP address as a search key to acquire the switch ID from the coincident record. The storage management device 1 further searches the address table 30 by using as a search key a combination of the acquired port ID and switch ID to save the IP address in the coincident record in an arbitrary area of the main memory 21 in order to use it in the VLAN deleting process, and thereafter deletes the record (S622).

Lastly, the storage management device 1 performs the VLAN deleting process. In the VLAN deleting process, the storage management device 1 sends a VLAN configuration request to the switch 3 a via the communication line 20 b in order to delete the physical port of the host 4 or storage device 2 whose link was disconnected (S623, S624).

Next, the details of the address updating process, VLAN adding process and VLAN deleting process described with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6C will be described.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the address table retrieving process to be performed by the storage management device 1.

Upon reception of the service advertisement packet or service request packet, the storage management device 1 executes the service request reception program 11 to acquire an IP address of a packet sender from the received service advertisement packet or service request packet (S701).

Next, the storage management device 1 executes the ARP sending program 12 to assemble an ARP request of inquiring the MAC address of the IP address obtained at S701 and to broadcast it via the communication lines 20 a (S702). Upon reception of the ARP response to the ARP request issued at S702, the storage management device 1 executes the ARP sending program 12 to derive the MAC address from the ARP response (S703).

Next, the storage management device 1 executes the port ID acquiring program 13 to fetch the first record of the switch table 35 (S704) and to send an acquisition request of the forwarding database to the management IP address of the record via the communication line 20 b. For example, the acquisition request of the forwarding database can be realized by acquiring an ipNetToMediaTable of MIB-2 (Management Information Base-2, RFC1213) by using Get of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) (S705).

Thereafter, the storage management device 1 searches the acquired forwarding database by using the MAC address acquired at S703 as a search key (S706). If a corresponding entry is found (S707), the storage management device 1 adds a new record to the address table 30, by entering the IP address acquired at S701, the MAC address acquired at S703, the switch ID of the record acquired at S704 and the port ID of the entry acquired at S707 (S708).

If a corresponding entry is not found at S707, the storage management device 1 repeats S705 to S707 for all records in the switch table 35 (S709, S710).

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the VLAN adding process to be performed by the storage management device 1.

First, the storage management device 1 executes the VLAN configuring program 15 to derive the iSCSI name of the iSCSI target or the IP address of the iSCSI initiator from the service advertisement packet or the service request packet respectively received at S701 shown in FIG. 7 (S801).

The storage management device 1 searches the group membership table 32 to obtain a group ID, by using as a search key the iSCSI name of the IP address respectively acquired at S801 (S802).

Next, the storage management device 1 searches again the group membership table 32 by using the group ID acquired at S802 as a search key (S803). If this search result indicates that the iSCSI target or the iSCSI initiator used as a key for searching the group ID is the first iSCSI node of the group, i.e., if the search at S803 indicates that the values of the connection flags in the entries 323 of all records are “0” (S804), the storage management device 1 sends a VLAN configuring request of creating a VLAN having the group ID acquired at S802 as its VLAN ID, to the switch via the communication line 20 b (S805).

After the step at S805 or if the value in the entry 323 of any record is “1” at S804, the storage management device 1 sends a VLAN adding request of adding the port ID acquired at S707 shown in FIG. 7 to the created (or already existing) VLAN via the communication line 20 b. The destination of this VLAN configuring request or VLAN adding request is the management IP address 351 of the record acquired at S704 or S710 shown in FIG. 7 (S806).

Thereafter, if necessary, the storage management device 1 may send a packet for storing or validating the switch configuration to the switch 3. Lastly, the storage management device 1 changes the value in the entry of the record matching the search conditions at S802 to “1” (S807).

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the VLAN deleting process to be performed by the storage management device 1.

First, the storage management device 1 executes the VLAN configuring program 15 to search the iSCSI name table 34 by using as a search key the IP address saved at S622 of FIG. 6C (S901). If the search at S901 finds a record (S902), the storage management device 1 judges that the iSCSI target was disconnected from the communication line 20, derives the iSCSI name 340 from the record, and searches the group membership table 32 by using the iSCSI name as a search key (S903).

If the search at S901 does not find a record (S902), the storage management device 1 judges that the iSCSI initiator was disconnected from the communication line 20, and searches the group membership table 32 by using as a search key the IP address (S904).

If the search at S903 or S904 does not find a record (S905), the storage management device 1 terminates the process. If a record is found at S905, the storage management device 1 derives the group ID from the found record. The storage management device 1 sends a VLAN releasing request to the switch via the communication line 20 b, the VLAN releasing request deleting the port ID contained in the link-down notice at S621 shown in FIG. 6C from the VLAN having the derived group ID as its VLAN ID (S906).

The storage management device 1 changes the value in the entry 323 of the searched record at S903 or S904 to “0” (S907).

Next, the storage management device 1 searches again the group membership table 32 by using the group ID acquired at the preceding step as a search key (S908). If this search result indicates that the iSCSI target or iSCSI initiator is the last iSCSI node of the group, i.e., if the search at S908 indicates that the values of the connection flags in the entries 323 of all records are “0” (S909), the storage management device 1 sends a VLAN deleting request of deleting VLAN corresponding to the group ID, to the switch via the communication line 20 b (S910).

Thereafter, if necessary, the storage management device 1 may send a packet for storing or validating the switch configuration to the switch 3. The destination of the VLAN releasing request at S906 or the VLAN deleting request at S910 is the management IP address 351 in the switch table 35 acquired at S622 of FIG. 6C.

According to the first embodiment described above, a system administrator configures LUN masking and enters a subnet address of VLAN to which the host 4 and storage device 2 constituting a group belong. With only these works by the system administrator, the storage management device 1 automatically instructs a switch to create VLAN when the host 4 or storage device 2 is connected to the network. The work load for security countermeasure of IP-SAN by the system administrator can therefore be reduced considerably.

Next, a second embodiment will be described. Only different points from the first embodiment will be described. In the second embodiment, the above-described IP-SAN security management is performed by a switch 3.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the configuration of a computer system having a storage device 2, switches 3 a and 3 b and hosts 4 a, 4 b, 4 c and 4 d, respectively connected by communication lines 20 a. The storage device 2, switches 3 a and 3 b are also interconnected by communication lines 20 b. In the following, it is assumed that the switch 3 a performs the IP-SAN security management.

The switch 3 a has: data send/receive elements 50 for receiving data from a network and sending data to the network or a data switching element 51 which is a bus or crossbar switch for sending/receiving data to and from the two data send/receive elements data 50; a forwarding database storage 52; a data switching controller 53 for controlling a data transmission destination of the data send/receive element in accordance with the contents of the forwarding database storage 52; a GUI controller 10, a discovery request receiver 11, an ARP sender 12, a port ID retriever 13, a LUN masking configuration element 14; a VLAN configuration element 15 and a main memory 21.

In this embodiment, although the switch 3 a has two data send/receive elements 50, it may have one, three or more data send/receive elements 50. Also in this embodiment, although the GUI controller 10 and the like are realized by hardware, the functions of these may be realized by software programs stored in the main memory 21 similar to the first embodiment.

A management terminal enters configuration information to the switch via a management network.

The main memory stores an address table 30, a group table 31, a group membership table 32, a LUN masking table 33, an iSCSI name table 34 and a switch table 35. A management IP address of a switch different from the switch 3 a is registered in the switch table 35.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a communication sequence to be performed when a host 4 a is connected to the switch 3 a.

After the host 4 a is connected to the switch 3 a, the host 4 a first sends a service request to the switch 3 a (S1101). Upon reception of the service request, the switch 3 a sends an ARP request to the host 4 a by using the ARP sender 12 to acquire the MAC address of the host 4 a (S1102, S1103).

Next, the switch 3 a reads the contents of the forwarding database in the forwarding database storage 52 by using the data switching controller 53. The port ID retriever 13 of the switch 3 a searches the forwarding database by using the MAC address acquired at S1103. If an entry corresponding to the MAC address is found, the switch 3 a judges that the host 4 a is connected directly to the switch (without involvement of another switch), and acquires the port ID from the searched entry (S1104).

The VLAN configuration element 15 searches the group key table 31 by using as a key the IP address of the sender of the service request and acquires the group ID 310 of the searched record. The VLAN configuration element 15 requests the data switching element 53 to configure VLAN and add the port ID acquired at S1104 to VLAN having the group ID as its VLAN ID. Thereafter, the data switching element 53 notifies the contents of the received VLAN configuration contents to the data send/receive element 50 so that the data send/receive element 50 can configure VLAN (S1105). Lastly, the discovery request receiver 11 of the switch 3 a returns a service response to the host 4 a (S1106).

If an entry cannot be found at S1104, the switch 3 a performs a process similar to that of the first embodiment. For example, in the communication sequence to be performed when a host 4 c is connected to the switch 3 b, the sequence similar to that shown in FIG. 6B is performed by replacing the host 4 a with the host 4 x, the switch 3 a with the switch 3 b, and the storage management device 1 with the switch 3 a.

Next, a third embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, the above-described IP-SAN security management is performed by the storage device 2. In this embodiment, the storage device 2 has the main memory 21 and magnetic disk 23. The main memory 21 stores the GUI controlling program 10, discovery request receiving program 11, ARP sending program 12, port ID retrieving program 13, LUN masking configuring program 14 and VLAN configuring program 15. The magnetic disk 23 stores the address table 30, group table 31, group membership table 32, LUN masking table 33, iSCSI name table 34 and switch table 35. The operation sequence of this embodiment is similar to that of the first embodiment, excepting that the storage management device 1 is replaced with the storage device 2.

According to the present invention, LUN masking and VLAN configuration of IP-SAN can be controlled collectively so that a load of configuration works by a system administrator can be reduced and a miss occurrence rate can be lowered. The running cost of IP-SAN can therefore be lowered.

It should be further understood by those skilled in the art that although the foregoing description has been made on embodiments of the invention, the invention is not limited thereto and various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims. 

1-13. (canceled)
 14. A target detecting method of a storage management server system coupled to at least one host computer and at least one storage system via at least one switch, said storage management server system storing a iSCSI name table, said target detecting method comprising: receiving a first request from said storage system via said switch after connecting said storage system to said switch, said first request being used to send IP address of said storage system as iSCSI target to said storage management server system; sending a second request to said storage system via said switch after receiving said first request; receiving an acknowledge from said storage system via said switch after sending said second request, said acknowledge being used to send a MAC address related to said IP address of said storage system; identifying a port identification of said switch based on said MAC address sent by said acknowledge.
 15. A target detecting method according to claim 14, further comprising: storing said IP address of said storage system sent by said first request in said iSCSI name table of storage management server system.
 16. A target detecting method according to claim 14, further comprising: storing said MAC address sent by said acknowledge and said identified port identification of said switch.
 17. A target detecting method according to claim 14, further comprising: storing a relationship information among said IP address of said storage system sent by said first request, said MAC address sent by said acknowledge and said identified port identification of said switch.
 18. A target detecting method according to claim 14: wherein said sending step for sending said second request is conducted to broadcast said second request.
 19. A target detecting method according to claim 14: wherein said storage management server system implements a iSNS (internet Simple Name Service).
 20. A target detecting method according to claim 14: wherein said first request is used to send said IP address of said storage system, an iSCSI name of said storage system and a port identification of storage system.
 21. A target detecting method according to claim 20, further comprising: storing said IP address of said storage system, an iSCSI name of said storage system and a port identification of storage system in said iSCSI name table after receiving said first request.
 22. A target detecting method according to claim 14, further comprising: reading a forwarding database stored in said switch, if said storage management server system receives said MAC address of said storage system, wherein said identifying step for identifying said port identification of said switch is conducted based on said read forwarding database.
 23. A target detecting method according to claim 14, further comprising: identifying said port identification of said switch, if said storage system disconnects from said switch, deleting said IP address of said storage system from an address table, said address table storing said IP address of said storage system sent by said first request, said MAC address sent by said acknowledge and said identified port identification of said switch.
 24. A target detecting method of a storage management server system coupled to at least one host computer and at least one storage system via at least one switch, said storage management server system storing a iSCSI name table, said target detecting method comprising: receiving a first request from said host computer via said switch after connecting said host computer to said switch, said first request being used to send IP address of said host computer as iSCSI target to said storage management server system; sending a second request to said host computer via said switch after receiving said first request; receiving an acknowledge from said host computer via said switch after sending said second request, said acknowledge being used to send a MAC address related to said IP address of said host computer; identifying a port identification of said switch based on said MAC address sent by said acknowledge.
 25. A target detecting method according to claim 24, further comprising: storing said IP address of said host computer sent by said first request in said iSCSI name table of storage management server system.
 26. A target detecting method according to claim 24, further comprising: storing said MAC address sent by said acknowledge and said identified port identification of said switch.
 27. A target detecting method according to claim 24, further comprising: storing a relationship information among said IP address of said host computer sent by said first request, said MAC address sent by said acknowledge and said identified port identification of said switch.
 28. A target detecting method according to claim 24: wherein said sending step for sending said second request is conducted to broadcast said second request.
 29. A target detecting method according to claim 24: wherein said storage management server system implements a iSNS (internet Simple Name Service).
 30. A target detecting method according to claim 24: wherein said first request is used to send said IP address of said host computer, an iSCSI name of said host computer and a port identification of host computer.
 31. A target detecting method according to claim 30, further comprising: storing said IP address of said host computer, an iSCSI name of said host computer and a port identification of host computer in said iSCSI name table after receiving said first request.
 32. A target detecting method according to claim 24, further comprising: reading a forwarding database stored in said switch, if said storage management server system receives said MAC address of said host computer, wherein said identifying step for identifying said port identification of said switch is conducted based on said read forwarding database.
 33. A target detecting method according to claim 24, further comprising: identifying said port identification of said switch, if said host computer disconnects from said switch, deleting said IP address of said host computer from an address table, said address table storing said IP address of said host computer sent by said first request, said MAC address sent by said acknowledge and said identified port identification of said switch. 